This comes as it has been confirmed that the financially strained mine is currently in the process of retrenching almost 200 employees and has applied for state assistance through the state-owned corporate unit - Alexkor SOC. Deputy Director-General of Public Enterprises, Kgathatso Tlhakudi, says the Pooling and Sharing Joint Venture (PSJV) between Alexkor SOC and the Richtersveld Mining Company, does not qualify for a bail-out. Tlhakudi says this is due to a plethora of reasons, including the fact that the mine is not technically a state-owned company, but rather a joint venture in which the state is merely a partner.

“The joint venture does not qualify for direct support and also because this is a business, it must be sustainable on its own. So that’s the challenge that we are sitting with. We also believe, were it not for other things that are going on at that mine, including allegations of corruption and instances where good performing contractors were terminated without adequate reason, the business would not be in the situation that it is in”. Tlhakudi concludes his interview with OFM News by asking how the department justifies pumping funds into a mine that is not entirely state-owned, but rather a joint venture with a state-owned entity.

In 2003 the Supreme Court of Appeal delivered a landmark judgment that restored the Richtersveld Community’s right to the mineral resources of the land and ordered that Alexkor must compensate the people for damage done. In 2011, a pooling and sharing joint venture (PSJV) between the community and the mine was formed as a result, hence Tlhakudi’s above mentioned explanation.

The Public Enterprises Deputy Director-General further added that Minister Pravin Gordhan’s powers regarding the mine are very limited. This is despite Gordhan placing a moratorium on all SOCs by the Shareholder representative, putting all acquisitions and disposals on hold, including diversification strategies at Alexkor SOC. Some of these strategies include expanding the operations – the mine operations - outside of the Richtersveld community.

OFM News has only received confirmation of retrenchments at the mine, not at the corporate unit. It is reported the mine currently employs just under 900 people, making the retrenchments a significant blow to the impoverished Richtersveld community, something which the Public Enterprises Director-General notes as a heavy concern.

Speaking on behalf of the CEO of the Pooling and Sharing Joint Venture (PSJV) between Alexkor SOC and the Richtersveld Mining Company, Mervyn Carstens, the Company Secretary, Raygen Phillips, says in a written response to questions on the matter that the mine’s financial position has been negatively impacted by adverse sea conditions which had a significant impact on production of marine contractors. There is no mention of the mismanagement allegations made by Tlhakudi.

In late February the mine vehemently denied that it was going to retrench any of its employees or that it had allegedly failed to pay January’s salaries timeously.

The company secretary does not mention that the mine’s carat production decreased significantly after the decision to grant an exclusive deep water mining licence to one company in 2017 backfired when the company’s vessel caught fire resulting in no carat production over the 2017/18 financial year.

OFM News